Claire sighed heavily. “I should have picked Mia.”
Noah chuckled, but she was right. Mia was the best choice out of the four of them.
Graham held out his hands. “If not me, who? Noah’s off the table. Am I so bad?”
Claire regarded him like she was inspecting a melon at the farmer’s market. “You’re hot and all, but... I don’t know. I just always hoped for someone more...romantic. I want a man who looks at me the way Mia looks at chicken wings.”
Noah wanted Mia to look at him the way Mia looked at chicken wings.
“If you’re at the point where you’re calling in backup, I think it’s safe to say that’s never gonna happen,” Graham said.
Claire gave him an adoring look. “You say the sweetest things.”
Noah held up a hand, halting their bickering. “When is all this happening? What’s your age cutoff that requires we instate the backup plan?”
“Fifty?” Graham suggested.
“Hell no.” Claire looked at him as if he were crazy. “That’s way too old. I’d say thirty if we hadn’t all hit it already.”
“Forty?” Mia offered.
Claire considered. “That works.”
“That’s only five years away,” Graham said.
“Speak for yourself, old man,” Claire said. “The rest of us are thirty.”
Noah held up his index finger.
Claire rolled her eyes. “Fine. Thirty or thirty-one. Either way, forty works.”
“So it’s Mia and Noah, Claire and me?” Graham confirmed.
Claire scowled. “This didn’t work out like I planned.” She turned eyes on Noah. “You haven’t given any input. Who do you want as your backup?”
He stilled.
“We all know he’d pick Mia,” Graham said. “Face it, my dear. I’m your man.” He winked. “And what a lucky woman you are.”
Claire scrunched her nose. “I have to know all my options. Come on, Noah. Between Mia and me, who do you want as your backup?”
He hesitated, unsure how to proceed, especially with the question hanging between him and Mia. But after a few seconds passed, Mia angled her torso toward him and one dark eyebrow lifted. She looked incredulous. Irritated, almost.
He stifled a laugh.
That one look settled his nerves, and it was like everything fell into place. He met her dark gaze and kept his voice as nonchalant as possible.
“I pick Mia, if she’ll have me.”
Between the two of them, Mia had always been the talker. In a group or on their own, she carried the conversation.
She was so sweet and genuine, people never seemed to mind. Noah certainly never had.
Even when he’d disappear into the tree house in his backyard to read in peace, she’d often find him there. Unlike Nathan, who would interrupt without so much of ayoubusy?, she’d at least wait until he’d finished his chapter, peeking over his shoulder to make sure before she started rambling.
Then they’d gotten old enough for cell phones and the text messages never stopped. He could probably count on one hand the days that had gone by where they hadn’t conversed at least once that way.
Which was why today had felt so weird. He hadn’t heard from her at all since Claire’s birthday dinner Friday night, and he still had no idea what was going through her mind. He’d been more tense today than the day he started the series of tests that were part of the Architect Registration Exam. He hadn’t wanted to push her, so he just let her think.